It was Clifford’s idea. We were watching this old movie, and not quite out of the blue he remarked this his sister’s boyfriend was in town and all he and his sister did was kiss. “Really, Mia, it’s like a thousand times a day,” he said.

“That seems excessive,” I said.

Clifford nodded sagely.

“I mean they probably don’t actually kiss a thousand times a day,” I clarified.

“They do!” Clifford insisted. “And that’s just the ones I’ve seen.”

“Maybe we need to get an accurate count,” I suggested. “It could be our summer project for science.”

Clifford thought this was a good idea. “He’s staying at the motel in town,” he said. “She usually meets him first thing in the parking lot.”

So we met early the next morning to lie in wait. Sure enough Emily’s boyfriend came around the corner just as Emily was coming around the other corner, and a few seconds later the boyfriend picked her up as if she weighed nothing, and they were kissing.

“Take a picture,” Clifford hissed. I’d been so entranced by the kiss I’d forgotten our plan. I aimed my cellphone and took a picture. The kiss kept going. Many kisses. Or could it just be counted as one? I took a couple more pictures. I thought maybe a video would be the way to go, but I wasn’t sure how much memory was left on my phone. Eventually the boyfriend, I think his name is Daniel, set Emily down, and hand in hand they walked away.

We followed. “Does that count as one kiss or how many?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Many,” Clifford said.

“But how do we quantify them when one blends into the other?”

“Quantify?” Clifford said.

“I guess we could just call it a kiss cluster for now.”

By now Emily and Daniel were well down the block and turning into the preserve.

“What’s in there?” I asked.

“Mostly mosquitoes,” Clifford said. “Some snakes. Some rabbits. Maybe a bear or two.”

“A bear?” I said.

“Supposedly,” Clifford said. “I might have heard one once. A snort that could have been a bear snort.”

“Sounds dubious to me,” I said.

“Dubious,” Clifford repeated. “Where did you learn all these words?”

“Shush,” I hissed, and pointed.

Up ahead, Daniel and Emily were kissing again. It was a lot like the first kiss. The first kiss cluster. He just hoisted her up and held her to him while they kissed. It went on for a while. Then something snapped. It was a branch on the ground which Daniel had been standing on. They lost their balance and toppled to the ground. But they were still kissing.